This invention relates to an improved tomato harvester.
There has been a demand for tomato harvesters with very large production capabilities. There have also been demands for tomato harvesters that could be used in situations more difficult than those for which they were originally designed--for example, for increased use where soils are liable to be wet or even muddy during harvest time, and without having to wait until they dry. There is also need for increased versatility, depending on various planting bed widths and various planting conditions of different moisture and field structure.
The conditions call for improvements in the location and adjustment of location of the colter discs and gauge wheels, and provision of an improved spinner for getting rid of mud. The former spinner, though very good, has tended to become plugged with mud during use.
The collecting conveyors have tended to catch and retain mud and debris, apparently partly because of their rigidity.
The conveyor system as a whole has called for improvement, having depended for some time on a cooperation with various aspects of the machine, and as a result having somewhat a tendency to pack the fruit into substantially a single row along the rear cross conveyor, which, it was believed, had to slope. Sorter conveyors have been hard to clean, and the guards for the cull chutes have hampered the cleaning of the remainder of the machine. There have been needs for providing room for a larger number of sorters and for new sorting positions.
The control of the machine by the operator has been difficult. Attempts have been made to have two men control the machine, one being a field manager and the other a driver, but this has proved to be impractical. It is generally desired to have control by a single man. Also, it has sometimes been difficult for this man to identify all the many controls that are needed, particularly when the man is illiterate or is not fluent in the language with which the machine is labeled. The view of the driver has also been obstructed at certain places by the canopy which shades the machine and the people working thereon.
In transferring the harvested and sorted crop to bins or trucks which are moving through the field, there have been problems in getting the output conveyor to operate at sufficient speed, to have its speed adjustable relative to the other conveyors, and to get this output conveyor to carry off a very large volume of fruit. Similarly, the final drop loaders have been limited by basic features of their construction in the amount of fruit that they could handle.
The present invention is directed to improvement along the lines described above. It solves a number of problems concerned with tomato harvesting and provides improved quality of operation as well as improvement in the quantity of tomatoes that can be handled and the general rapidity of operations.